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The two countries have long-held ties in the education sector, with ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï having worked with various Saudi education agencies over recent years. In 2015, ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï worked with Saudi Arabian government agencies to create a national assessment program to support teaching and learning, along with organisational capacity.

The latest collaboration between ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï and the Kingdom aims to enhance education officials’ capacity in the field of national examination and report writing. A five-day workshop has been held remotely, with officials from Saudi Arabia’s taking part. ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï Senior Research Fellow Dr Alexander Daraganov led the event; focusing on issues such as sampling and weighting in Arabic literacy, scaling of Arabic literacy data and producing student proficiency scores.

The workshop forms part of Saudi Arabia’s broader efforts to improve the standard of education and training throughout the Kingdom. The country has made education a key focus of its ‘Vision 2030’, a blueprint to realize Saudi Arabia’s vision of becoming an investment powerhouse and strategic hub connecting the three continents of Asia, Europe and Africa. The roadmap for achieving the 2030 Vision, the National Transformation Program, has set strategic objectives for education that focus on the training of educators, the evaluation of education facilities and improvement of curriculum models.

Dr. Mohammed Alzaghibi, Senior Advisor and Director of the General Directorate of Partnerships and International Collaboration at ETEC, welcomed ºÚÁϳԹϒs expertise.

‘Having our people work with international leaders in the field of national examinations is an opportunity to ensure our national qualifications continue to meet stringent standards and evidence best practice. Ultimately it will be Saudi students, at all levels of the education system, that benefit from these international collaborations. Improving our examination system will help Saudi Arabia to achieve its ambitious goals for education, so we look forward to the impact this collaboration with ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï will have in the short and long-term,’ Dr Alzaghibi said. ■